Materials Performance

SEP 2018

Materials Performance is the world's most widely circulated magazine dedicated to corrosion prevention and control. MP provides information about the latest corrosion control technologies and practical applications for every industry and environment.

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The driving force that causes metals to corrode is a natural consequence of their
temporary existence in metallic form. To reach this metallic state from their occurrence in
nature in the form of various compounds (ores), it is necessary for them to absorb and store
up the energy required to release the metals from their original compounds for later return by
corrosion. The amount of energy required and stored varies from metal to metal. It is relatively
high for metals such as magnesium, aluminum, and iron, and relatively low for metals such as
copper, silver, and gold. Table 1 lists a few metals in order of diminishing amounts of energy
required to convert them from their oxides to metal.
A typical cycle is illustrated by iron. The most com-
mon iron ore, hematite, is an oxide of iron (Fe
2
O
3
).
The most common product of the corrosion of iron—
rust—has a similar chemical composition. The energy
required to convert iron ore to metallic iron is returned
when the iron corrodes to form the original compound.
Only the rate of energy change may be different.
The energy difference between metals and their
ores can be expressed in electrical terms that are
related to formation heats of the compounds. The
difficulty of extracting metals from their ores in terms
of the energy required, and the consequent tendency
to release this energy by corrosion, is reflected by the
relative positions of pure metals in a list.
Destruction by corrosion takes many forms, and
depends on the complex interaction of a multitude of
factors, such as:
Some environments are more corrosive than
others. Although there are exceptions, the following
statements are generally accepted as facts:
8 Nature of the metal or alloy.
8 Presence of inclusions or other foreign matter
at the surface.
8 Homogeneity of the metallic structure.
8 Nature of the corrosive environment.
8 Incidental environmental factors such as the
presence of oxygen and its uniformity, temperature, and velocity of movement.
8 Stress (residual or applied, steady or cyclic).
8 Oxide scales (continuous or broken).
8 Presence of porous or semiporous deposits on surfaces, built-in crevices.
8 Galvanic effects among dissimilar metals.
8 Occasional presence of stray electrical currents from external sources.
Except in rare cases of a grossly improper choice of material for a particular service, or an
unanticipated drastic change in the corrosive nature of the environment or complete misunder-
standing of its nature, failures of metals by rapid general attack (wasting away) are not often
encountered. Corrosion failures are more often subtle and a result of invisible localized effects in
the form of pits, intergranular corrosion, or attack within crevices.
This article is adapted from Corrosion Basics—An Introduction, Second Edition, Pierre R.
Roberge, ed. (Houston, TX: NACE International, 2006), pp. 21-22.
Why Metals Corrode
1 9 4 3 – 2 0 1 8
NACE INTERNATIONAL
75
Table 1. Positions of Some Metals
in the Order of Energy Required to
Convert Their Oxides to Produce
1 kg of Metal
Metal Oxide
Energy
(MJ kg
–1
)
Highest energy Li Li
2
O 40.94
Al Al
2
O
3
29.44
Mg MgO 23.52
Ti TiO
2
18.66
Cr Cr
2
O
3
10.24
Na Na
2
O 8.32
Fe Fe
2
O
3
6.71
Zn ZnO 4.93
K K
2
O 4.17
Ni NiO 3.65
Cu Cu
2
O 1.18
Pb PbO 0.92
Pt PtO
2
0.44
Ag Ag
2
O 0.06
Au Au
2
O
3
–0.18
W W W.MATERIALSPERFORMANCE.COM
Corrosion
Basics
SEPTEMBER 2018 A52